Chameleon Shadows
by caetlyn
Summary: A mysterious force is taking the identity of Hogwarts students, and a new student has to figure it out before her new friends all turn up missing.
1. Introductions

'Kay so this a Harry Potter ficcie, obviously, most of the characters like Harry and Hermione arent mine but Kate Arswyd is all mine, but if you wanna use her ask me, I'll probably let you because she's really fun! The story is mine too and I hold copywrite on it.  
  
***  
  
Kate was nervous, it was her first day at a new school and even though it wasn't her first time being in a new school, it was kind of different being at a new country. England was so far away from home! It was two weeks into the school year and so she didn't come in with the other students but had to come separately and was met at the entrance to the school by several of the teachers.  
  
"Hi," one said, "I'm Professor Dumbeldore and I'm the headmaster here at Hogwarts."  
  
"Hi," Kate smiled shyly. The guy seemed nice, kind of like a grandfather, he had a long white beard and a friendly expression.  
  
"Now, we don't get alot of transfer students, so it's kind of unusual, but America doesn't have any wizard schools to speak of." He peered over his glasses at her and smiled. "These are the heads of the various Houses, there's Professor McGonagall of Gryffindor, and Professor Snape of Slytherin, and Professor Flitwick of Ravenclaw, and Professor Sprout of Hufflepuff." He pointed at each one in turn and Kate smiled and waved. "We'll be doing a private session with the Sorting Hat to see where you will be spending your time at Hogwarts, if you will come with me?"  
  
Kate nodded and followed him, trying not to gawk at the cathedral like school. It still didn't seem quite real that she was at a school for wizards of all things! She had thought the letter was some kind of prank when she first got it but it wasn't! Wow!  
  
Dumbeldore led her to an office, explaining the Houses as they went, and then when they got there he put a big ragged old hat on her head, and she jumped when it spoke to her. "New student, I see. I suppose you'll be wanting to know where you'll be, hmm?"  
  
"Uh, yes please," Kate felt kindof dorky for talking to a hat.  
  
"Hmmm well, you seem like a smart girl, Ravenclaw might work."  
  
"Okay" said Kate, she didn't really know enough about the houses to really care which one she went in, and from what she understood you got the same classes, it was mainly a matter of where you slept.  
  
The hat hummed to itself on her head and then said "You aren't from around here."  
  
Kate blinked surprised. "No I'm from America."  
  
"It must be scary to come here."  
  
Kate shrugged and said, "Yeah but being scared doesn't get you any place. It's better just to do things even if they're new."  
  
"Hmm," the hat said and then said "I think you'd do well in Gryffindor, why don't you go there?"  
  
"Okay" Kate said again. "Thank you." The hat made a snoring noise in her ear, it had fallen asleep so she took it off and said, "It put me in Gryffindor."  
  
"Exellent," Dumbeldore beamed at her. "Professor McGonagall my dear, would you show miss Arswyd to the Gryffindor common room?"  
  
Professor McGonagall was a kind of severe looking woman, with square glasses and a stern expression, she didn't look like someone who put up with that much in the way of hijinks. "Come with me, please," she said, and Kate followed. "This is the common room for Gryffindor, this is where you'll be spending a lot of your spare time. You get in by going to this picture and saying the password, which is "Pickled Herring" right now. Why don't you try it?"  
  
"Um," Kate said, feeling stupid again. The painting smiled at her, which was weird because paintings didn't usually smile or move. "Pickled Herring?"  
  
"Welcome to Gryffindor" the painting said, as it swung aside, and Kate went in, feeling nervous.  
  
There were other students there around her own age, and she waved shyly at them. "Hi. I'm Kate."  
  
"Cor," one of the students said, he was a round-faced boy with red hair and lots of freckles. "You must be the new transfer student? We heard about you. Hi, I'm Ron. You're in Gryffindor? That's a good house, of course I'm kind of partial to it." He laughed, and Kate smiled at him. "You should know where you're going to be sleeping though. Oi, Hermione! Come show -- what was your name, Kathy?"  
  
"Kate. Kate Arswyd."  
  
"Kate, right, sorry. Hermione, come show Kate where she'll be sleeping."  
  
"Okay," a girl said, she had really curly hair and big teeth and looked smart. "Come with me, I'll show you where the girl's dormitory is." 


	2. First Night

I promise I'll get to the real plot soon, lol.   
  
***  
  
Kate lay awake for a long time, staring at the ceiling and not able to fall asleep because she was so nervous. When she finally fell asleep she dreamed of home the way it had been when she was a child, with her parents there and playing with her. She awoke with a gasp, fighting with the covers around her. There was someone there and she almost screamed but then the person said "Hey, Kate, you okay?" and she recognized the voice as Hermione.  
  
"Oh. Hi. Yeah, I'm..." Kate took a deep breath and said, "I'll be fine."  
  
Hermione sat on the corner of the bed. "It sounded like you were dreaming."  
  
"Yeah," Kate pulled her knees up to her chest. "I was dreaming of home. It's the first time in a while."  
  
"Home's pretty far away isn't it? You sound American."  
  
"Yeah, pretty much, my parents grew up in Ireland but I was born in Connecticut and stuff."  
  
Hermione patted her arm, "I know it's scary but we do get breaks, you can go back home."  
  
"No I can't?" Kate shrugged. "My parents died when I was six, I don't really have a home to go back to."  
  
"Oh." Hermione leaned over and hugged her, "Well you can think of us as your friends okay? And friends are kind of like family."  
  
"That's very sweet," Kate said. "Hey, I've never been around wizards before, what's it like?"  
  
"Oh, you're parents are muggles too? I mean, normal people. Not wizards." Hermione grinned conspiriatorally and scooted higher onto the bed. She had pink fuzzy bunny slippers, and Kate smiled when she saw that. Hermione said, "No one in my family's a wizard, it was kind of weird when I got the Hogwarts letter, you know."  
  
"Yeah, I totally didn't even know that wizards existed, let alone wizarding schools. So what's it like?"  
  
"It depends on who you're talking about," Hermione laughed. "Some of the people here are kind of nuts, although mostly those ones are harmless. Stay away from Slytherin people though, they can be mean. You'll know them when you see them, they kind of scream "I'm a slimeball" at you. But a lot of the other people are really nice, it's easy to make friends."  
  
"Yeah I've noticed," Kate smiled at her. "So what do you guys do for fun around here?"  
  
"Um, mostly I spend time in the library," Hermione said. "Hogwarts has the best library, at least in terms of magical stuff, there's everything you'll ever need."  
  
"Cool," Kate said enthusiastically, she liked learning things. "I think I'll have a lot of catching up to do since I got here late. Can you help me?"  
  
"Sure, I'd love to." Hermione grineed, "I'm the perfect person to talk to about, most of the others don't really like doing schoolwork. It's kind of silly, I mean what are they in school for if not to learn?"  
  
"Yeah, totally."  
  
Hermione leaned over and gave her another hug. "You think you can sleep now Kate?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry for keeping you up. I'm fine, thanks for talking to me though."  
  
"Hey, it's not a problem. I'm glad I could help." Hermione smiled and went off to her bed, and Kate laid back in her bed and smiled. Maybe Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad after all, she had friends and people seemed nice. 


End file.
